Individuals taking supplements and/or medications are often required to ingest capsules or pills multiple times per week, and in some instances, multiple times per day, in order to receive the necessary amount of the active ingredients contained therein at the appropriate time. Traditionally, this has required an individual to self-monitor their capsule or pill in-take, such as through the use of a medication log or a pill box having multiple labeled compartments. These methods include ample opportunity for human error. Furthermore, the requirement of having to take multiple pills per day or per week is cumbersome and inconvenient.
As an alternative, some medications and/or supplements have been provided in sustained-released pills. Sustained-released pills attempt to alleviate the burdens of taking numerous pills per day by providing relatively large amounts of medicine in a single pill that gradually releases the quantity of medicine over an extended period of time once ingested. Generally speaking, pills of this type are limited to the delivery of medicines regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Furthermore, the periods of time over which the medication is gradually released are relatively short, and almost always less than 24 hours. Accordingly, these pills do not resolve the issue where an individual is required to take multiple doses of a medication over several days, weeks or months.
Additionally, the options for sustained release of medication are believed to be mostly limited to pills or capsules. However, some individuals finds pills or the like difficult to deal with. For instances, pills are generally small and can easily be lost if dropped. Also, many individuals have difficulty swallowing pills, especially younger children.
One example of a sustained-release medicine in a non-capsule form is the composition described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,001,392. The composition generally includes drug/resin complexes that may be carried in a liquid composition, wherein the drug is an antitussive. The drug/resin complexes utilize cross-linked ion exchange resins, with the drug adsorbed on to the cross-linked ion exchange resin via ionic bonds between the drug and the ion-exchange resin. The manner of making drug/resin complexes using ion-exchange resins can be relatively complicated and expensive. Often, the ability to alter the period of time over which the medication is released is controlled by using substantial coating layers, rather than manipulating the drug/resin complex. For example, some drug/resin complexes of the '392 patent require coating layers that are 50% w/w drug in order to provide sustained release of the antitussive. The requirement for this relatively large amount of coating layer raises the overall price of manufacturing the drug/resin complexes.
The drug/resin complexes of the '392 patent may be carried by liquid compositions that generally include ingredients that are not deemed suitable for use in foods (either in any quantity of above certain quantities), such as polyethylene glycols (PEGs) and certain ion-exchange resins. For example, the '392 patent utilizes Amberlite IR-69 as the ion exchange resin, which does not carry a GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe) designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Thus, while the '392 patent describes drinkable liquid compositions for sustained release of antitussives, the '392 patent is limited to medicinal applications that are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.